February 2024 bulletin
News and updates
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new A-Z PeopleXD guidance webpage, this page includes links to the guidance on the HR Systems website to help make it easier to find. We will continue to update this webpage, but if you spot anything that is missing or are struggling to find guidance please get in touch.
We are currently preparing for the annual tax year-end updates in PeopleXD. Each year this requires software to be tested and applied to the system to ensure that the University can fulfil its statutory payroll reporting obligations.
To achieve this, we need to schedule a period of system downtime as follows:
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| Thursday 21st March |
Standard 'no user input' period for People Management users 17:00 - System downtime begins - PeopleXD will be unavailable |
| Friday 22nd March | System downtime continues - PeopleXD will be unavailable |
| Monday 25th March |
System downtime continues - PeopleXD will be unavailable We will let you know as soon as PeopleXD becomes available again |
Any activity undertaken in the Portal will be impacted. HR Self-Service will therefore be unavailable during the full system downtime, which will be noted on the Staff Gateway page.
HR Reporting will still be available and Recruitment (the applicant interface) will remain live for the entire period so applicants will be unaffected by this work.
As always, we will aim to keep the duration of any downtime to an absolute minimum.
HR Systems Support
HR Systems Support will be closed from 17:00 on Wednesday 27 March, until 08:30 on Tuesday 2 April. PeopleXD will remain available to users and applicants during this time.
Support for applicants
During this period, applicants can apply for jobs online, but technical support will be unavailable. Most queries can be resolved with guidance from the ‘How to apply’ and ‘Support with your online job application’ webpages. A notice on the University’s Jobs webpages will inform applicants of the technical support closure.
Staff requests
University HR will also be closed, and staff requests will not be processed from 12:00 noon on Wednesday 27 March, until Tuesday 2 April 2024.
- System downtime for Tax Year End: Thursday 21st - Monday 25th March 2024
- Easter closure for HR Systems: 17:00 Wednesday 27 March - 08:30 Tuesday 2 April 2024 - see details above
- Staff Request processing on pause: 12:00 noon on Wednesday 27 March - AM Tuesday 2 April 2024 - see details above
Details of current, in-scope projects under the HR Systems Programme can be found on our dedicated webpage. This includes latest updates and timelines, where available.
Note: These pages are under development and are updated regularly.
Reminders
Please explore the tabs below to see the essential reports that should be run monthly.
Queries relating to data quality reports should be addressed to the Data Quality mailbox.
| Report name | When to run | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| PERDEP02 FTC end dates | For casual worker records: prior to casual payroll deadline For FTC employees: prior to main payroll deadline |
To ensure that FTC and casual appointments are ended in a timely manner and maintain accurate expected end dates |
| PERDEP20 Monthly personnel changes | Prior to main payroll deadline | To review data updates in PeopleXD are as expected for the month, and to monitor data updates made by staff in HR Self-Service. This report will return results based on the effective date of change. |
| PERDEP21 Monthly data input check | Prior to main payroll deadline | To review appointment data has been input and it is correct or to help pick up anomalies |
| PERDEP01 Home address and contact details | Prior to main payroll deadline | To check address updates and monitor SSO/HR Self-Service account creation/issues, to ensure compliance with timely access to payslips. Please remember to run this for casual staff too. |
| Onboarding: 'Completed checklist items' | Prior to supplementary payroll deadline - for NI number only | To extract NI numbers prior to the supplementary payroll deadline. All other data can be entered into PeopleXD outside of the Payroll deadlines. |
| Report | When to run | Purpose | Guidance/Further information |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERDEP41 Immigration and right to work | At any point in the month | To manage visa/RtW processes, to comply with Home Office rules/immigration law. Please remember to also run this for casual workers. | |
| PERDEP10 Cost allocation (funding) end dates | At any point in the month | To identify funding end dates/records with missing cost allocations. | |
| HRINFO01 Data quality validation | At any point in the month | To maintain data quality and assist with HESA data submissions and other statutory reporting. | |
| HRINFO20 Casual worker data quality validation | At any point in the month | To assist with HESA data submissions and other statutory reporting. | Clearing data quality errors Staff classifications |
| PERDEP06 Agency workers | At any point in the month | To comply with 12-week service rules |
| Report | When to run | Purpose | Guidance/Further information |
|---|---|---|---|
| RECDEP40 Vacancy details | At any point in the month | To ensure vacancies are updates and closed in a timely manner | |
| HRINFO21 Vacancy and applicant data quality report | At any point in the month | To maintain applicant status and vacancy management (useful for Athena Swan data) | Making changes to recruitment data |
When recording or updating appointments, ensure the correct 'Reason' is selected. This is crucial for many reasons, including central reporting, payroll purposes and 'Onboarding'. Always follow the relevant guide to ensure accuracy.
Since January, there has been an increase in the number of new appointments set up with a 'Reason' of 'Correcting Error'. The Onboarding checklist won't trigger without the correct appointment 'Reason'.
To correct a mistake, edit the current (and/or historic) appointment sequences by following the Track changes and correct records guide, ensuring the 'Reason' aligns with the actual scenario. Where advised to use 'Correcting Error' for an appointment change, provide full details in the Comments.
Casual staff should access payslips via HR Self-Service, where possible. Where your casual staff do not and will not gain HR Self-Service access, (because they do not have SSO/University email address), remember to record an online payslip exception in PeopleXD. This provides a clear instruction to Payroll to issue paper payslips.
We have a legal duty to provide payslips in a timely manner, and staff who do not have HR Self-Service accounts nor an exception for an online payslip will not receive their payslip. Check who in your department has an HR Self-Service account by running the PERDEP01 Home address and contact details report (review the last column ‘ESS account?’).
Onboarding key reminders
See the common reasons that cause issues with the Onboarding checklist activation and the solutions required to resolve them:
| Issue | Solution to resolve |
|---|---|
| Incorrect appointment reason | For new starters, ensure appointment 'Reason' is either: 'New Starter – new to the University' OR 'New Starter (ex-employee)' (for rehires) |
| Incorrect appointment status | Promptly 'Commence' the appointment in PeopleXD after completing the ‘Appointing Wizard’. HR Self-Service accounts can only be created for ‘Commenced’ appointments |
| Missing HR Self-Service account | Ensure that SSO/University email have been created. This is needed in order to create new HR Self-Service accounts |
Full details and FAQs can be found on the PeopleXD Onboarding overview page:
As bank details are collected as part of this process, the new starter should complete their Onboarding tasks by the supplementary Payroll deadline.
Where these deadlines can’t be met, Payroll-critical data must be collected via a different method, with it then entered by HR on behalf of the staff member. You may use a short version of the New Starter Form or request details via email for this.
While Onboarding captures data, not all information automatically integrates into the People Management personnel record.
It is crucial to manually extract this completed data from Onboarding and input it into People Management for record completeness. Use the dedicated 'Insight' report for extracting data that needs to be updated manually, available directly within PeopleXD.
For full guidance refer to the relevant appointing guide:
Existing staff will only be presented with tasks where these haven't been completed or marked as completed before.
Staff who started on or after 1 November 2023, will not be presented with any items, unless they transfer from a non-academic into an academic, or non-clinical into clinical post, and will now be presented with tasks that wouldn't have been displayed to them before.
This also applies to staff who at the time of Onboarding launch were automatically marked as having completed their Onboarding tasks to prevent them from being presented with the checklist at that stage.
Updated HR data dashboards
The Athena Swan staff data Tableau dashboards will be updated soon for maternity leave return rates and longevity calculations at 6, 12 and 18 months after return, with data spanning academic years 2018/19 to 2021/22. This differs from the other data provided because of the potential duration of maternity leave (52 weeks). For details, refer to Athena SWAN data provision.
The Athena Swan recruitment Tableau dashboards have been updated to include refreshed recruitment data for 2022/23. Thank you to those who made data updates and corrections to vacancies/applicants for vacancies posted externally on or since 1 August 2022.
For Tableau access, please follow the user access process. For user guidance, refer to the Athena SWAN Tableau Manual. Further information is available from:
If you have Athena SWAN data queries, please contact the Athena Swan Staff Data mailbox:
The recruitment data for all academic years has been refreshed within the dashboard. This is to ensure that the significant number of vacancies that have been closed since the introduction of the dashboard are captured within the percentage of successful campaigns. It also ensures that all applicants are captured, even if they have submitted an incomplete application, which is important to ensure we report on all campaigns.
